In a ruling released on Monday for Heien v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court decided with an 8-1 vote that police are justified in stopping citizens for actions they "reasonably" believe are illegal, even if the officers' understanding of the law is significantly or entirely mistaken.
The specific case under consideration concerned a traffic stop over a broken tail light, which led to discovery of drugs in the car. But since North Carolina only requires drivers to have a single "stop lamp," the driver arguably should never have been stopped at all.
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